Here’s a picture from the Kaiser Family Foundation from late last year, showing what people want done to improve the US healthcare system:
Plenty of work to do!
This cartoon made the rounds of twitter a few weeks ago, and was first brought to my attention by Timothy McBride (@mcbridetd). But it is such an entertaining cartoon, I thought I would circulate it again: For all its flaws, Obamacare has done more to increase access to health insurance than any government program since…
It is not unfair that we spend more on medical care for some people than others. After all, some people are sicker than others. If there’s anything unfair, it’s probably the uneven distribution of illness and disability. That said, the disparity in healthcare spending across people is pretty staggering. As this picture shows, courtesy of…
For decades now, policymakers have been trying to slow down the growth of healthcare costs. For much of this time, a large part of that effort was directed at hospital spending. American hospitals are extremely expensive, and take care of patients with the most severe illnesses. So if we’re going to control costs, it seems…
Sabin Russell wrote a great piece in Health Affairs recently, on the drought in investment to develop new medical devices. Read it if you have access. If you don’t, here are some of her main points. 1. Venture capital for device manufacturers has been drying up for a while: “‘For five years, this industry has…
“eBay and the Brain: What Psychology Teaches Us about the Economic Downturn” – Scientific American
I know, I know: correlation does not mean causation. But it is still suspicious that when industry employees join as co-authors in medical journals, the randomized trials they are writing about are more likely to show positive results – results that make industry products look good. At least that was the finding from a study…